Women Should fight against the pay gap in the industry; Deepika Padukone

Deepika Padukone, one of the highest paid actors in the Indian film industry, says women must not shy away from demanding and even fighting for the pay they think they deserve. The actor, who attended the TIME 100 gala on Tuesday night, spoke to Time magazine about the need for confidence among women to ask for better pay.

“You can feel a sense of – am I stepping over the line, do I deserve it? But if you believe you deserve it, then you do,” said Deepika, the only Indian to feature in the Time 100 Influential People in the World, sharing space with names like Nicole Kidman, Gal Gadot, Greta Gerwig and Lena Waithe.

“For years, we’ve been made to feel we should be okay with settling for less, with sometimes a promise of getting something more later on. But I think you should get what you think you deserve. It’s okay to fight for it, and it’s okay to feel uncomfortable initially, because that’s just the way we’ve been made to feel for so long,” she added.
She said it’s the power, strength and courage that she derives from the people around her that encourage her to go on every day.

“And for some of us I think who do think of giving up once in a while, I want you to know that we’re all in this together, and most importantly that there is hope, because in the words of Stephen Fry, “Will be sunny one day’,” she said.